Verse: Siren

Go sing your undinal song to the night
lest it fall asleep
it's not tedium that afflicts it so
it's the hours that it keeps

I don't know how you sing that song
as sweetly as you do
forgive my jealousy, my fear that
others will come in search of you

I know I can be too familiar by times
and smother you with touch
and fill your ears with vagrant words
I tend to talk too much

And though your eyes are growing tired
and the night is not so bold
Do indulge me long enough
so this story may be told

It was some 25 years ago
that I first heard your song
but my ears were too immature
it did not captivate me long

And though I did not travel far
in actual miles it's true
we might as well have been worlds apart
for all I thought of you

I next chanced to hear your song
At a time when I was not yet free
yet I surrendered all of my possessions
and set out on the sea

Roiled often by regret
and consumed by constant qualms
it was your voice that was my compass
it was your voice that kept me calm

The wind did try to turn me back
and the waves sought to repel
still your voice called out to me
compelled me to rebel

And when at last I reached your shores
I was haggard, I was thin
but your lips fed my hunger
and I drank deep the dew on your skin

Almost two years have passed since then
how quick and careless time does fly
writ small in the lines around your eyes
writ large in the restless sky

Sometimes when I am gathered in
your all-encompassing embrace
I forget that I possess a will
a name, a voice, a face

Now sing that song that seduced me
sing that song again
lest I wake to find this is illusion
a dream in some opium den

Sing that song that enticed me
don't falter, and don't stop
not until those stars have melted
not until the moon does drop

Loose your song, your siren song
discrete and deathless and deep
to ferry my sleeping body across
the senescent sea of sleep